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OK, I admit I'm one who is seriously addicted to this racing sim and the community.

I try very hard to get in at least one race a day, and definitely average more than 8 races a week. Right now my numbers (except from safety rating) suck, but I have every confidence I will more up the ladder. But then again, I never watched my numbers when I was involved in NASCAR 2003, and when I did check, they were darn good. I just love to race. I also know that the wins will come.

You're not the only one. I'm really enjoying the game. Right now i'm only driving the star mazda, where i try to get the high SOF races. I race about 3 times a week, the other days i usually just do some qualy sessions. I was 7th overall after the 3rd week and usually post qualytimes in top 5 overall so who knows.

Who knows, we may have crossed paths on the track. I used to do a lot of NASCAR 2003, then almost ten years ago dropped off the online racing scene, to just do the console thing. But the competitive bug came back, I got into iRacing, and have been busy losing bad habits and rebuilding my skills. And .. I've stuck to one car and one series, the Mazda MX5 with just their four tracks. I think you'll agree that if you jump around between cars and tracks, you aren't developing as quickly by sticking to just one series.

I'm slowly bringing my lap times down, and they are respectable apart from Laguna Seca. But I've made good progress in the last few days, and am slowly cranking up the aggression factor.

I really like iRacing, it's a no BS or excuses sim, where dedication and skill are the only things that matter.

We might have, i started in the MX5. Staying with the same car is a good idea, but i quite quickly got a bit bored by the lack of speed in the mx-5 . I recommend you use the program iSpeed, it's a fantastic tool to help get faster.

Tyre tweaks to the FW31 have transformed it. Really really enjoyable to drive now, I'm in the high 47's at Spa but only after I discovered you can actually push the car now! No more driving on eggshells. The Skip Barber is the same, ever since I joined the service the Skippy has had this horrible lift off oversteer which makes it just an ugly thing to drive, and I always thought that was strange since it's supposed to be a benign racing school car. Good news, with the latest update that's exactly what it is. If you haven't tried it in the last couple of weeks I urge you to!

Hey guys, I've seen in this topic that you're really into iRacing. I've been playing games like GT5 and F1 2012 for quite a while but I'm getting bored of the arcade focus of those games and I'm thinking about taking the step into sim racing and after some research I thought that iRacing could be a good option. Do you recommend this sim for me? Or is it a step which I won't be able to handle given my lack of experience in this area? One last question, are you able to play this game with a normal computer or do you need very good gear? Thank you in anticipation and sorry for the bad english, I'm from Brazil

iRacing is a subscription service where everything is downloadable content, and you must be connected to the internet for the sim to function. The game is actually launched from a browser, but iRacing have VERY robust servers. I got a one year's subscription for $75, but that was a special deal, and it is $100 per year. But iRacing run lots of special offers, you just have to keep sharp and get them when they show up. You get 6 cars and 10 tracks. Now this is the part that hurts, you can get lots more cars and tracks, but they cost. So if you wanted to get every car and track available, it could cost you somewhere around $800. But once you purchase them, they are yours for life.

OK, that was the bad news, time for the good news. The cars and tracks are incredible, as realistic as can be. Everything is oriented towards realism, as close to the real world as possible. No turbo boost or rewind button, even just one view, from the cockpit. There is lots and lots of racing, I can get into a quality race every hour. I can practice whenever I wish, and for as long as I wish. This is a community of racers, and also very supportive. Of course there are some jerks, but the great majority are gentleman racers. If you are concerned about your lack of experience, please do not, there are many people willing to help you, lots of instructional videos and tools, and a ranking system that allows you to compete against fellow racers of the same level. Yes, there are many of your fellow countrymen in iRacing, and Brazil leagues. This may provide inspiration.

The above picture is of Hugo Lius, one of the top ranked iRacers, he is respected and as you can see, does not need fancy equipment to compete at the very highest level. In fact, you can watch the next race on Sept 7th (10 AM EST), at Interlagos. It is broadcast just like Formula One, on http://www.iracing.com/live/ Just click that link next Saturday, and you can watch an online race live.

For me, I compete in the same cars and track I purchased, in fact I could race for many years without having to purchase any additional tracks or cars. I develop my skills in the Mazda Cup, a MX5 raced on 4 different tracks. Just last night I was caught up with three other racers and we raced hard, there was no contact, and we changed positions a lot, just good, hard, clean racing everyone enjoyed.

You develop reference points around the track on iRacing and when you get to the real track they are the same. For sure it will accelerate my learning process this year at the tracks I’ve never been to – Lime Rock, Mosport and Road Atlanta – so I’m definitely going to be using iRacing for that.

Plus I’ve always enjoyed gaming, so I’m having a lot of fun with that. I’m driving for Jaguar this year with Bruno Junqueira and Oriol Servia and we are organizing something so we can have some iRacing competition between us.

Blinky McSquinty, thank you very much for the attention and advice. Your words encouraged me a lot and I'm joining iRacing as soon as possible. Hope I can develop my skills and we might race each other one day!

I would like to add some suggestions. in iRacing there are tutorials, a driving school. I suggest you go over as many as possible. When I got started, it was intimidating. So what I did was stick to one car and series, and practice, practice, practice. Then I started to "ghost" race, where I was invisible to everyone else and could not affect anything, and just followed other cars around. Then once I began to race, I started from the pits, and my one and only objective was just to finish, hopefully without any incident.

I cannot stress enough that at the beginning, the most important part is to finish and not get caught up in accidents. Too many times I have seen drivers try to win the race their first time out, and make a huge mess of everything. Develop your skills, develop your confidence, and I promise you the wins will come.

In the beginning, there is no shame finishing last on the track, because every race has it's share of incidents where some drivers DNF because they had accidents. Just stay clean and give distance to other cars, finish the race. If you stick to this plan, before long you will find yourself developing, and without realizing it, racing further up the pack with confidence and skill.

How does the iRacing community compare to RFactor in terms of people online? I love racing open-wheeler sims, however RFactor/RFactor2 has gradually been boring me, I'm about 1sec too slow to be considered for an FSR drive and so it devolves into a game of endlessly racing split times rather than actually having the opportunity to race against anyone, since aside from the FSR community there is max like 2 people online racing open wheelers.

iRacing is about racing other people. There are different license classes, and also a rating system. Any clean driver can move up to the "A" license, it is not a reflection on how quick they are, but that they can be trusted not do stupid things. In the rating system, it is based on how well you do against others.

With this system drivers are guaranteed that they will be racing others with the same skill level, not be forced to go up against true aliens. At this moment I am checking a popular series that anyone can compete in, the Mazda Cup, and there are 10 races going on right now, with 11 or 12 participants. And to be honest, I usually see more, 15 to 18 is the norm. Races run every hour in the Mazda Cup, so I could easily get into a race in awhile and go up against 10 to 20 racers of relatively similar skill level. Even the worst racer in the world can do it. In an extreme situation where some bozo just keeps wrecking everyone and his safety rating falls off the cliff, the iRacing admins may be forced to expel that person, but that is a very rare and extreme case. You would want to wreck everyone, at every race to get into that situation. I hope you understand the logic, everyone is there to enjoy racing, not get wrecked.

If you start to finish well or even win a lot, your rating will go up, and you will be "promoted" to a higher level. That way you will always be racing against others with the same skill level.

At this very moment iRacing has a special deal where if you sign up, you get two free months with one. So for just $12 bucks you can try it out for 3 months. If you like it, fine, you can extend your membership. If you don't, it only cost you $12.

I currently have a subscription to iRacing but I won't be renewing it. The thing I really don't like about it is the forever costs and the fact that every car every track costs money. I understand it takes time/effort/money to develop them but eh, Rfactor 2 is a one time fee all tracks, cars are free ect.. Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy iRacing and haven't had the time to fire it up as of late, hopefully I will before my Sub ends. I do love how large their online community is, much much better than RF1/RF2.

Thanks for your comments shim2, it provides balance and highlights some of iRacing shortcomings.

When you compare it to other games, it's horribly expensive, and can be a drain in the budget. When you compare it to real world racing, it's incredibly cheap.

Compared to Dave Kaemmer's (the game developer) previous releases, it moves away from being a game into a true online racing career. And people should think of it this way, you have to use your real name, there are no second chances, and good driving and performance does bring rewards. You start a tthe bottom, and build your career. And if you are dedicated enough, and good enough, you have the opportunity to compete at the highest level against a select field of drivers, just like in Formula One or NASCAR Sprint series.

The goal of the iRacing.com experience is simple: to make each lap driven in simulation as valid as a lap driven on the real-world race circuit.

And shim2, even though I'm seriously addicted, I too have to keep an eye on my iRacing budget. I'm moving up a class and intend to compete in a different series, and that requires a new car and tracks. So I'm looking for series that fit my requirements, yet will provide me the maximum fun factor at an affordable cost.

For those unaware of iRacing, there are different series, from short track ovals in Legends cars, to Skip Barber, to Aussie V-8's, to NASCAR, to Formula One, and a whole lot more. So you can race at what you like to do.

I played iRacing for a bit and spend a decent bit of money on it but ultimately decided to stop for a few reasons.

1. Too expensive, the costs start to skyrocket when you want to progress forward with different series.

2. Time, you really have to put in a lot of time to really get anywhere with it, I felt like I was under pressure to put in more time than I wanted in order to be competitive, to grind races to increase my safety rating just so I could drive cars, and If someone ended my race I would lose safety rating meaning I had to grind time trials more. People suggested starting from the pits and driving around slow not getting in peoples way, just to raise safety rating, I found this concept just hilarious and did not do it. I'd worked my way up to a B in both road and oval before I stopped.

3. Somewhat tied in with the above but I found myself putting too much pressure on myself to win races and to not make mistakes, I would be really anxious and get stressed out, sometimes getting the shakes before/after the race. Perhaps this is normal but I didn't want to be taking a game so seriously, back then I was decent but nowhere near the top end alien drivers yet I was very hard on myself and was disapointed with only a 30% win ratio.

4. I don't think that it is as a driving experience the best or most realistic out there. Some of the cars are good (others not so much) and the tracks are awesome but when I was playing last the game was going through this transition of the "New tyre model" which had some pretty glaring teething issues and what everyone had been expecting to be some amazing change and leap forward in realism turned into a bit of a mess.

For organised racing iRacing really is second to none, and if you want competition you will find it, but for me I realised I just wanted the best driving experience and to play it as a game for my own pleasures (which iRacing wasn't delivering, expecially considering the price), not for the massive dedication needed or the pressure I put on myself to be competitive and win. But along with that I found other sims had less focus on car setup (fixed setups) where I could focus more on just driving.

I understand your concerns Bigbazz, but iRacing isn't just a game, it is very serious cyber-racing at the highest level. More than anything, it is a career path in racing. Yes, you don't deal in real metal, asphalt and blood, but just like the real world, the more you invest in it, the more you get out of it.

But this is at complete odds with the "normal" gaming experience, where the learning curve is very short, and satisfaction comes quickly. All I can say is that if isn't for you, fine and dandy, it isn't everyone's cup of tea. But if it suits your temperament and desires, it's something that you will pursue for many years.

My suggestion to anyone is that if interests you, subscribe for just a short period to see if you want if. If it doesn't work out, the cost is less than one game. For instance, iracing has another incentive deal out, half price for new members. That means that for just 3 months the cost is $15. Heck, you can get just one month for $6.

Anyhewww ....

Tonight (8 Pm EST) there is a celebrity event, the annual iRacing race of Champions. Only professional racers compete, and among the drivers expected to participate are NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte, NASCAR Nationwide Rookie of the Year Timmy Hill, former F1 driver and IndyCar champion Cristiano da Matta, GRAND-AM/ALMS winner Spencer Pumpelly and, from the V8 Supercar Series, Matt Halliday and defending iPRoC Champion, Shane Van Gisbergen. There are two races, the opener will feature iRacing’s Chevy Impalas and Ford Mustangs that run in the NASCAR Nationwide series, for 25 laps under the lights at Iowa Speedway, while the finale will see the pros racing their McLaren MP4-12C GT3s for ten laps on iRacing’s laser-scanned version of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

One positive feature is that iRacing continually brings new cars and tracks to the inventory. Last week they brought out a new track, California, and one car. Actually, it's three cars for the price of one. It's the RUF RT12, in three different configurations, the C spec, the RWD, and the track, each with different power levels and weights. The forums have been buzzing and the general consensus is that this may be the best sim car out, and that covers many platforms and games.

Although I really am tight with spending any extra money on iRacing, I got myself a Christmas present in the RUF and a track (Bathurst). What can I say, it's truly a joy to drive, sounds are 10/10, and this is the kind of car that just wants to race.

I've been tempted with a resub + RUF + Bathurst.. It's just the sheer price that gets me down a bit. That's probably what I paid for the entirety of Assetto Corsa, which is an amazing sim/game in its own right. I saw the Inside Sim Racing driving session of the new RUF cars on their youtube channel

And it looks great, not sure if I will buy the hype of "best sim car" as I've heard that too many times, but I would love to give it a try. Money is pretty tight though, same reason I keep on sitting on the shelf with iRacing and never taking up their offers to go back... It's so expensive when you have to pay a subscription for the content you already bought, would be nice if the subscription was just for online play.. I'd be happy to pay for the content if I could use it for offline hotlapping once my sub had ran out.

Bit of an update, I went ahead and resubscribed with a 1 + 2 months free deal. I have to say though I'm not going to purchase Bathurst + RUF as the cars that I do own are not that great. I think my memory of iRacing (apparently I last played in early-mid 2012) was one of slightly rose-tinted glasses when it comes to the driving/physics model. Some cars feel really funky and I must admit I found the F1 car was perhaps the worst of all the versions I've tried from various sims.

I'l probably play it a bit and get my moneys worth, still enjoy doing some Oval racing (it's better than one might expect) as I have the Truck + Impala B class but I can't see me buying any more content or keeping my subscription going past my 3 months.

Bit of an update, I went ahead and resubscribed with a 1 + 2 months free deal. I have to say though I'm not going to purchase Bathurst + RUF as the cars that I do own are not that great. I think my memory of iRacing (apparently I last played in early-mid 2012) was one of slightly rose-tinted glasses when it comes to the driving/physics model. Some cars feel really funky and I must admit I found the F1 car was perhaps the worst of all the versions I've tried from various sims.

I'l probably play it a bit and get my moneys worth, still enjoy doing some Oval racing (it's better than one might expect) as I have the Truck + Impala B class but I can't see me buying any more content or keeping my subscription going past my 3 months.

Please do elaborate, i have just started in iRacing and i am having a bit of fun although i think it is a bit too difficult to drive. i am sure with your experience you can add to that

The problem with iRacing, and with all sims, is that they feel amazing and realistic when you are driving at 95% (which means seconds off the world records) but when you are getting nearer to the limits of the car the physics just collapse. I haven't played since late 2011 but from what I heard from fellow DWC drivers the F1 especially is even worse than it was when I drove. Don't know if that's true but it's a pity. There was SO much talk about the new tyre model then and seems like it didn't deliver.

Still it was really fun. You learned a lot about racing by actually racing against other people, even if it happened in virtual world instead of real asphalt. I just have too competitive nature - nothing is enough, I have to be the best. So it became too frustrating at times even obsessive. Sometimes I would hotlap in offline 4 hours straight trying to improve a tenth or two. I started college and dropped the hobby. I was never going to be as good as Greger Huttu anyway, so maybe it was for the best. All though sometimes I wonder how good I'd be today if I never stopped.

The problem with iRacing, and with all sims, is that they feel amazing and realistic when you are driving at 95% (which means seconds off the world records) but when you are getting nearer to the limits of the car the physics just collapse. I haven't played since late 2011 but from what I heard from fellow DWC drivers the F1 especially is even worse than it was when I drove. Don't know if that's true but it's a pity. There was SO much talk about the new tyre model then and seems like it didn't deliver.

Still it was really fun. You learned a lot about racing by actually racing against other people, even if it happened in virtual world instead of real asphalt. I just have too competitive nature - nothing is enough, I have to be the best. So it became too frustrating at times even obsessive. Sometimes I would hotlap in offline 4 hours straight trying to improve a tenth or two. I started college and dropped the hobby. I was never going to be as good as Greger Huttu anyway, so maybe it was for the best. All though sometimes I wonder how good I'd be today if I never stopped.

There is a big difference between how it feels now and back in 2011. I find it hard to put my exact thoughts into words so you will have to try to visualise what I mean. The old tyre model is actually how you described, it worked great up to 95% and then started doing strange things, but the model worked and it was "safe". The new tyre model is mathematical based and is from what I can tell the result of years of experiments by Dave (physics dev). Strangely to me I found that in the extreme cars (F1 car especially) the tyres actually now behave badly below the limit and don't start working stable until right up at that 99% limit, where transitions between these 2 phases is very in your face. For example the F1 car feels like it has unlimited grip and like it is constantly oversteering (extremely sensitive) in what I could only describe to myself as "super glue jelly bungie cord tyres". The absolute smallest of movements make a massive difference and losing grip happens out of nowhere..

Because you have this above mentioned characteristic you feel like you're driving an unlimited grip machine until you hit the limit where there is a kind of almost understeer "wall" and it stops oversteering and starts to feel less insane (a little more stable), so its very hard to get it to the limit but once you're there it feels more comfortable, unfortunately when you transition back below the limit (which you will do a lot) or when you initiate weight transfers the tyres revert to their superglue mode and either spit you off the track or start to slide.. when it starts to slide it is like being on ice, when the rear tyres go they just slide away from you. Basically a lot of unpredictable and at times almost contradictory behaviour, you can feel like you have it under control and that the tyres are stable right up until the point where it spits you off the track out of nowhere, with no warning... as I said, extremely sensitive and unpredictable.

If you watch how the F1 drivers drive then this is just so far from reality, I'm sure it provides some pretty hairy racing (and some pretty high crash rates I'm sure) but I don't think it really resembles real life in any way. It's certaintly a lot more sensitive than it was on the old tyre model.

M.Nader -DODZ- wrote:

Bigbazz wrote:

Bit of an update, I went ahead and resubscribed with a 1 + 2 months free deal. I have to say though I'm not going to purchase Bathurst + RUF as the cars that I do own are not that great. I think my memory of iRacing (apparently I last played in early-mid 2012) was one of slightly rose-tinted glasses when it comes to the driving/physics model. Some cars feel really funky and I must admit I found the F1 car was perhaps the worst of all the versions I've tried from various sims.

I'l probably play it a bit and get my moneys worth, still enjoy doing some Oval racing (it's better than one might expect) as I have the Truck + Impala B class but I can't see me buying any more content or keeping my subscription going past my 3 months.

Please do elaborate, i have just started in iRacing and i am having a bit of fun although i think it is a bit too difficult to drive. i am sure with your experience you can add to that

Continuing on from above, but more in the general sense. It feels like in many cars when they start to lose grip at the rear they never really re gain that grip, and so you have this strange sensation from a lot of the cars where you have this slow motion almost unsaveable tankslapper and the back end will come around as if it is on a pivot... Very noticeable in the Cadillac racing car with the default setup (but there in a few other cars too, it seems to be an iRacing characteristic).

Also, I find myself feeling that in the low speed corners in some of the heavier cars (again like the Cadillac or the Corvette C6R) that the car is just floating about with absolutely no feeling, and often enough that is accompanied by the above rear end coming around out of nowhere... It's a very disconnected feeling.

I find that rather than driving the car to the visual/sound and FFB feeling cues in a natural way you have to perhaps train yourself to drive the cars in a way that will avoid you getting into the situation where the above would happen. In the Cadillac instead of feeling say a progressive "grip wall" where I can progressively feel the grip and limit of the edge of the tyre instead I have to estimate where that is. The reason is that the sim almost gives you the false indication that you have more grip than you do, what happens then is that the car will turn in and keep turning in (similar to the unlimited grip + constant oversteer I talked about with the F1) until eventually the rear tyres give up and start to slide, and then you have the above mentioned back end slide where the tyres never re gain any grip and just slide as if they are on Ice, this characteristic feels almost amplified in low speed corners.

There was one car that I drove that did feel much more realistic and natural, the Spec Ford Racer. A much slower car but to me this one felt a bit more predictable to drive, it locked the brakes up a bit easy (not sure how accurate that is) but otherwise I felt it was pretty good.

I will say that in its current form iRacing is a lot harder than other simulators to drive... But it feels to me that the main reasons for that are the issue with very unpredictable tyre behaviour, the strange slow speed floaty/unconnected physics on the heavy cars and perhaps because of a general lack of connection with between the driver and the simulator. If I jump into Assetto Corsa, Rfactor 2, Simraceway, NetKar Pro (some of the other highly rated simulators) I can pretty much jump in and drive comfortably at a pretty high level almost instantly, driving in other simulators is like second nature... it's like driving in the real world to me... iRacing though seems to be a beast of it's own, and honestly I don't think it is all that realistic at all.

Regarding Assetto Corsa : This is one I've been driving a bit and I must say it is by far and away the most realistic I've driven, and that seems to be the general consensus (even on the iRacing forums strangely), in AC more than anything I can really drive the cars and when mistakes happen they are mistakes, there is no unpredictable behaviour going on and that makes it a very engaging and lifelike driving experience.

With the greatest of respect and tact... Just race! It's amazing how quickly you forget about percieved problems with the tyre model when you've got someone lined up into Murray's corner...

If there was only one racing game/simulator out there then perhaps that is the case, but when you're debating whether to spend £20 on a single car and track that you get to "rent" at the cost of £10 a month it's hard to look past some flaws when there are objectively (or subjectively I suppose) both cheaper and better options out there.

I was asked to elaborate on my thoughts/observations, and I tried to explain it as best I could.. Very hard to really do with words though, even then it turned out a much longer post than I would like. iRacing is pretty good but I'l be honest I think it's definitely too pricey for what is essentially an eternal work progress of experiments where the core element (driving the cars) is filled with pretty obvious flaws.

Nothing is perfect in this world though, my issue is probably with the pricing more than anything else. I come from the perspective of someone who enjoys more the driving of cars than the racing competition itself and that's probably why my concerns and thoughts are often more focussed towards that.

With the greatest of respect and tact... Just race! It's amazing how quickly you forget about percieved problems with the tyre model when you've got someone lined up into Murray's corner...

If there was only one racing game/simulator out there then perhaps that is the case, but when you're debating whether to spend £20 on a single car and track that you get to "rent" at the cost of £10 a month it's hard to look past some flaws when there are objectively (or subjectively I suppose) both cheaper and better options out there.

I was asked to elaborate on my thoughts/observations, and I tried to explain it as best I could.. Very hard to really do with words though, even then it turned out a much longer post than I would like. iRacing is pretty good but I'l be honest I think it's definitely too pricey for what is essentially an eternal work progress of experiments where the core element (driving the cars) is filled with pretty obvious flaws.

Nothing is perfect in this world though, my issue is probably with the pricing more than anything else. I come from the perspective of someone who enjoys more the driving of cars than the racing competition itself and that's probably why my concerns and thoughts are often more focussed towards that.

Ah I see. For actually racing against people nothing compares to iRacing. The netcode, the community, nothing else comes close. AC feels great, but it's a rather lonely experience at the moment.

With the greatest of respect and tact... Just race! It's amazing how quickly you forget about percieved problems with the tyre model when you've got someone lined up into Murray's corner...

If there was only one racing game/simulator out there then perhaps that is the case, but when you're debating whether to spend £20 on a single car and track that you get to "rent" at the cost of £10 a month it's hard to look past some flaws when there are objectively (or subjectively I suppose) both cheaper and better options out there.

I was asked to elaborate on my thoughts/observations, and I tried to explain it as best I could.. Very hard to really do with words though, even then it turned out a much longer post than I would like. iRacing is pretty good but I'l be honest I think it's definitely too pricey for what is essentially an eternal work progress of experiments where the core element (driving the cars) is filled with pretty obvious flaws.

Nothing is perfect in this world though, my issue is probably with the pricing more than anything else. I come from the perspective of someone who enjoys more the driving of cars than the racing competition itself and that's probably why my concerns and thoughts are often more focussed towards that.

Thank you for your input and opinion Bigbazz, I really do appreciate them. There are many racing sims out there, and they all appeal to a specific segment of the sim racing community. There is no right one or wrong one, just the one that suits you. If there is anything I would like people to understand is the costs involved. They can get substantial if you suddenly decide to purchase a few extra cars and tracks.

I expect iRacing to be a perpetual work in progress, their goal is to produce a product as close to the real world as possible. And I believe that with the new cars and tire models, they are inching a lot closer than ever before. In the iRacing forums there was one professional driver who raced Porsches for ten years, then spent the next ten years being a driver instructor in Porsches. He testified that two of the RUF models were bang on.

So I'm practicing at Mosport in the Ruf RT 12R and as I plunge over the crest at turn 2, I realize I have over-driven the corner, and going wide. I drag my brakes just slightly, and the weight shifts forward, inducing oversteer and a very shallow drift angle. The car decelerates, my line tightens, I recover and carry on. Inside my head, under my headphones I say to myself, "wow, if they only knew...."

So After struggling to get past the noncompetitive 1.43.7s in testing around Laguna Seca (a track i am familiar with) i looked at the schedule and decided it was time for me to go competitive, Summit point week is already up and running.

I decided to give it a go and much to my surprise i was very good! a track i had never driven before and here i am beating my time lap after lap after lap with no stagnation point near sight. I feel happy enough with a 1.26 given that i know the aliens can do 1.24s.

I enter a time trial to get used to things (a qualifying session was an hour away) and i hit consistent 1.25.5s! (i can't get 7 clean laps done however!).

SO i RACE

First race and i am the fastest on in the warmups and start 4th behind those setting quali laps. start is made i beat 2 in front, one doesn't give up however and in turn 2 with me taking a VERY wide line to avoid contact he still has hope of taking the inside and hits my rear right! i spin and face backwards and get a head on collision. Needless to say the race is over, i even pit to repair what can be done but the car still steers wildly to the left and i get offtrack more often that not till disqualification.

Race 2: i am very cautious now and super afraid, 2nd fastest in warmups but start further back, avoid contact till turn 5 but then all hell breaks lose in front of me with the leader spinning and taking out 2 other cars, i avoid hitting the first and second only to T-bone (Vettel in Spa 2010) the third car waving uncontrollably across the track, i am super tiddled and disappointed. luckily i was braking heavily at this point to avoid the other 2 cars.MY STEERING STILL WORKS! and i am happy again the car is perfect, or so i thought. I am down on power :'( . I am now 3rd, but i am only doing 1.27s! and cant go any faster, i have a car ahead of me and one of the faster guys dropped back to avoid the collision, i overtake one and get overtaken. Leader spins out and i sit in second till the end of the race 10s ahead of anyone else.

I've been running the same series too, I'll keep an eye out to see if you pop up in the same race. My approach is slightly different. I can get to 1:25's but I'm on the ragged edge and can't hold it together for the entire race. I can run 1:27's until it gets dark, and never run into any trouble. I know my times will come down, they have been on a very steady, but slow, decline in times.I've had some very exciting battles in the pack, it really is fun to be in a bunch of cars, side-by-side and nose-to-tail. It used to freak me out, but now I really enjoy it.

The thing is, and I'm sure you now realize it, is that you can have good races, and completely crappy races, and it can be out of your control. On Tuesday I deliberately started in the pits to avoid any problems, only to find some ****** backing out on the track before the end of lap one. You would expect someone with a few brain cells to make sure the way was clear, but NO, he just hit reverse, and backed out into my path. Game over, two laps lost in the pits doing repairs. And actually, that is when I realized that no matter how hard you try to have a clean race, s--t happens.

So now I start buried in the pack, and enjoy myself. I may get taken out in the first corner, but I no longer worry about it. I know I have great car control and on average, finish better than I start and collect very few incident points (the safety rating determines whether you can move up a class).

Last night I started 7th, finished 4th, and had to defend my position for the last 5 laps with a quicker car on my tail. During the race there was this one yahoo, freaking quick, but a disaster on wheels. He obviously had a lot more aggression than brains. He should have won, but he would pass cars, then either chuck it off the track or hit someone. It came to the point where he accumulated so many incident points (20) that the system kicked in and booted him out of the race. After the race I checked his driving record, and he either won or crashed out, and his safety rating was absolutely terrible.

The bottom line is that no matter what your intentions, how good you are, or how well you drive, you can have an excellent race, or a complete disaster. There are no guarantees. The thing is to pick yourself up, move on, and do it again.

Yes Blinky, you are absolutely spot on, you can have some awful races outsidebof your control. In a vain attempt to start away from traffic i did a qualifying session where i clocked a respectable 1.25.7 i thought that this timebwould keep me out of trouble at the start.

Yesterday i had a race where i started second in a very competitive field and was very excited to see 4 of us running times covered within a second. I got through the first lap but made a mistake braking into turn 1 running wide, the guy behind snuck in the inside at turn 2, noe i knoe thid id not sn overtaking spot so i do the sensible thing snd let him past, but then as we accelerate out he tabes the brakes and given he is already on the inside attempting a difficult overtake he was already slow, i try to avoid but cant and give him a gentle nudge on the back.Unfortunatley for me that sends him staright into the gravel and he decides that he doesn't need to collect the car but seek revenge and swirves violently into me sending me spinning for quite a bit till i hit the fences.

I usually say that it takes two to tangle and it does, but to avoid that i would have lost considerable time and a position to avoid this guys fury. I think i should have done that and had the exciting race promised

Don't fear the start or the racing against others, but instead embrace it. Most definitely there are races where once it is concluded you examine the results and mutter something about it being a crappy race. But on average, you have a heck of a lot more good races than bad.

I think too much, and I suspect you suffer from the same ailment. Because iRacing carries rewards and consequences, it becomes a bit serious. I know of one person who had a subscription for over a year, and it took him that long to work up to the point where he was ready to race. And at the other end of the spectrum I almost envy those with little imagination or foresight, who jump into a race minutes into their subscription, no practice or anything, and attempt to win the race.

Intellectually, because I have hundreds and hundreds of online races under my belt, I know that you have to take the bad with the good, because it does average out, and if you are a decent racer, your statistics improve. But emotionally it's different for me. Because I had taken a long hiatus from online racing, I was nervous and fraught with anxieties. For the first few races I was timid and scared, jumping out of the way when anyone got within a hundred meters of me.

But now, it's all changed, I have become the predator. My belief an attitude is that everyone should fear me, because I intend to be the one attacking and doing the passing. My experience has supported my beliefs, because 90% of the time I am adept at taking advantage of situations, and coming out ahead. I'm not an alien, most of the time I'm not the fastest guy out there. But I am a fierce but clean racer who will contest every inch of the track, and give nothing away.

It takes time to construct that plateau of unshakeable confidence, and the only way to do it is to race a lot. But once there, every race is nothing but pure fun.

So now that i have been doing iRacing for a while maybe i can give my 2 cents.

It is fantastically flawed!!!

I spent my first month practicing and practicing to get up to speed and avoid the spins and went through that uphill slope and was very frustrated. Untill i did my first race. Racing and competing against others made me improve dramatically, sometimds taking off 2 seconds of my time when i was struggling ti improve half a second in free practice (that is partially because iRacing improve the track grip in the official sessions), i am not an alian but i am not slow for example my best time around Okyama is 1.50.4 which is pretty decent and i did that in race trim , i do suffer from some rookie impatience though and sometims havd ruined races for myslef and others. But it is always nice when the other guy is mature enough to have achat about it, and when i am in the wrong i apologise and we amhave fun discussing the race itself.

The comunity, the racing, the addiction is fantastic. Sometimes i stay online for 4 races in a row which is about 4 hours, only to comeback the same night for more. The learning process is very good and i feel like i am making progress.

That said, the actual sim itself i don't like. It feels so alien, like driving on ice! Things got better when i increased the force feedback strength but still i don't think it is good enough, the feel of the bumps is spot on but the feel for the tyres is very strange and non existent and once the rear loses grip, no matter what the speed is, there is no coming back and the same applies when hitting the grass the tyres don't really gain the grip even if you are doing 10kph you wilk spin uncontrollably.And the worst part is they say the MX-5 is one of the grippier cars. And although it does need to be worked to operate it isn't really grippy. I know that i do 1.45Gs cornering and similar in braking which indicate grip, but i just don't feel it and i certainly can't count on my skill to catch the car as i know that i will fail one time or the other ( even if the situation is exactly repeated).

That is why i plan to finish the Mazda cup series season 1 then give Assetto Corsa a go which i hear is the solution to me exact conplains

I have to confess I spent some money. I rationalize it this way ... since I already invested at least three grand into the computer and racing hardware, another three hundred is but a small fraction of the overall cost. And anyways, it's my addiction and hobby, I have golf buddies who spend a lot more per year.

But what do I get out of it? I'm having so much fun it should be illegal. I have all the road race tracks and a nice stable of fun cars. I earned my "A" licence and that allows me to race in any class I choose. And the GT3 is built for fun with the Macca MP-4 12C, RUF, and Bimmer Z4. The competition is fierce, the fields are 25 to 32 cars, and I'm having races that are nothing but pure fun.

Just a few hours ago I was in a race where I got into a great competition with two other racers. Our battling slowed us down to the point where we lost touch with the cars ahead, but for 20 laps we battled inches from each other, passing and repassing continually. It was intense but hard and clean racing.

Exactly. iRacing isn't perfect and does deserve criticism in some areas especially cost. But I've played most racing sims. They have a career mode. Mine is real, my real name and my results are all there for the world to see. If I do well my ratings climb. If I do poor, same thing, my ratings drop. And if I'm really good, then just like a professional driver I graduate to an elite class where only the best race.

It isn't difficult to get the "A" class licence, all it takes is discipline and just a few races where you don't accumulate penalties. But the performance rating is what matters then, and even in the level I race in, there are ten classes. That way I always race against those who are close to me in performance.

The pure competition is what makes me happy. There is a race every two hours, the fied is immense (200 plus people divided into separate races of approximately 30 cars) and I almost always find myslef battling someone. I know that securing a tenth place doesn't sound impressive but consider that there are thirty other people fighting just as hard. And all the while almost always I find myself in wonderful battles.